“That guy is going to be senator and just might be President someday!”
In 1985, that was the frequent refrain I heard about freshman Rep. Pat Swindall, R.-GA, from fellow political reporters in Washington DC. Republican operatives in Georgia agreed.
“Pat was crisp, clean cut, had a chiseled look and a great speaking voice,” recalled Matt Towery, retired pollster, columnist and former Georgia state legislator, “And he has a beautiful wife and seven children. He is everything you want in a candidate.”
But that bright future so many predicted was not to be. When Pat Swindall died July 11 at age 67, what was primarily remembered about him by the press was the scandal that finished the Georgian after two terms in Congress. A jury found that he had lied when he claimed not to know a potential home loan to him could come from drug money.
As a result, Swindall lost his seat, served nearly 9 months in federal prison (1994-95) and was disbarred in 1996.
All of this was light years removed from a decade before, when the young (34) Atlanta lawyer and onetime University of Georgia student body president arrived in Washington after unseating ten-year Democratic Rep. Eliot Levitas.
Swindall had ridden Ronald Reagan’s long re-election coattails that year, but he had also clearly outworked his opponent. In the process, he energized both Republican activists and fellow evangelical Christians into an enthusiastic volunteer platoon.
“You won’t be able to keep up with Pat when you cover him in Congress,” Robb Austin, Swindall’s campaign manager and top aide predicted to me after his election, “He’ll run you ragged.”
One of only two Republican in the Peach State’s U.S. House delegation (the other was Speaker-to-be Newt Gingrich), Swindall became an active Member of the conservative House Republican Study Committee. He was an outspoken backer of Reagan’s budget and a point man on pro-life legislation.
At a time when the term “religious right” was heard increasingly in U.S. politics, the man from Georgia traveled nationwide to show fellow evangelical Christians how to “work the churches” and mobilize the church community into political battle.
Even admirers of Swindall say his downfall began with his building of a $1.2 million mansion in tony Stone Mountain, Georgia. Construction of the home, which resembled “Tara” in the movie Gone With the Wind, was too much to maintain on the congressman’s salary.
In 1987, Swindall was discussing an $850,000 home loan with a representative of Georgia businessman and supporter Charles Le Chesney. Le Chesney, it turned out, was accused of drug trafficking by federal officials and was cooperating with them.
The representative was actually undercover IRS agent Mike Mullaney, who told Swindall any loan made to him by Le Chesney would almost certainly include money from illegal drugs and the loan would be part of an operation to “launder” the drug money.
Swindall countered with a proposal for Le Chesney to set up a mortgage company to serve as a “buffer” for the drug dollars and let him borrow from the company.
After three days, however, the congressman returned an advance $150,000 check uncashed to Mullaney and told him: “If Charles wants to launder y'all's money, fine. But I can't do that. . . . I can borrow the money from Charles.”
In October, 1988, amid a hard-fought re-election battle against Democrat and onetime “Dukes of Hazzard” co-star Ben “Cooter” Jones, Swindall was indicted for lying to a grand jury about whether he knew a loan from Le Chesney included drug money.
“It’s a set-up!” charged Swindall supporters, who jammed the courtroom audience wearing campaign buttons and carrying Bibles. But the hard-hitting prosecution of U.S. Attorney (and future U.S. Rep.) Bob Barr and Mullaney’s covert recordings of the congressman and Mullaney led a jury to convict Swindall on nine counts.
To no one’s surprise, he also lost his seat to Democrat Jones.
Upon his release from prison, Swindall launched a talk show on a local Christian radio affiliate and soon re-opened several flea markets in Atlanta. Out-of-touch with friends for several years, he recently announced he was in agreement with President Trump about a “deep state” of entrenched career government officials who undermine conservatives and would soon complete a book showing his own downfall was the work of this “deep state.”
“Pat probably paid a much deeper price professionally than he should have for any mistakes he made,” said Matt Towery, “His problem was that, at times, he let his ambition overcome him.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.